Upside Down
by Song As Old As Time
Summary: When the Archaeology student Astrid Hofferson is offered the possibility to intern the digging on the Isle of Berk, she never imagined that it would turn her life upside down. Strange things happen and Astrid find herself stuck 1100 years back in time, in an age of Vikings and Dragons. Credit for the cover image to the wonderful Leffie: leffie-draws-fanart. tumblr. com
1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone!

This is my first fanfiction in years and my first HTTYD fanfiction ever.

I recently watched the TV-series Outlander and being completely obsessed with it, I came up with the idea for this. I still have no idea where it's headed or how long it will be, but I am excited to find out.

I apologize if my language or grammar is incorrect sometimes, but English is my second language and besides, I just really suck at grammar!

I hope you will enjoy the story,

Lots of love from Lennie!

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It is quite incredible how life can change. You are one person one second and another the next. Your world looks one way and in a moment it is all turned upside down, leaving you to figure out how to react and live next. When I received word of the possibility to intern and join the digging in the northern archipelago one summer, I did not hesitate a second before accepting. It was a huge opportunity as an archaeology student, so why should I hesitate? Back then I did not know that that decision would be what turned my life on its head.

My name is Astrid Hofferson, I was born in the year 1995 and I am 21 years old. My parents passed away in a car crash when I was young so I was raised by my grandfather who passed away a few years ago. My grandfather had been a history professor when he was young, he always told me stories of ancient times as I grew up, his stories were the reason that I decided to study archaeology. It was the start of the summer vacation year 2016 when my internship started. We were three interns and five archaeologists that would reside in tents along the beach on the small isle called Berk for two months. Berk had once been the capital of the archipelago in an age where dragons and Vikings lived side by side in peace. Berk had been the great example that other tribes in the archipelago had tried to live up to. Unfortunately, almost a 1000 years had passed since the last dragons had disappeared, yet no one knew exactly what happened to them. It was suspected that a war had broken out between those who befriended dragons and those who killed them. The theory was that the dragons alongside thousands upon thousands of Vikings had died in the fights, our expeditions' goal was to refute or confirm this theory.

When we had first arrived on Berk, we were told not to venture off by ourselves as most of the isle had been abandoned by the human race for hundreds of years. Yet after three weeks of constant exploring and digging I broke the rules, I figured that taking a walk through the once great Viking village was harmless. It was crazy to imagine what kind of life people might have led when this place was full of life and dragons, now it was nothing but scattered ruins here and there. Since most houses had been wooden, only the fundaments and the odd stone house ruin such as the Meade Hall was still standing. The only real value left here was what we had found, such as axes, swords, and other various weapons, kitchen tools, toys, instruments suspected to have been used for the dragons, and so on. As I reached the outskirts of the village, I continued my walk through the woods. The day before, we had discovered this amazingly beautiful cove but we had not had the time to explore it, suddenly I felt an urge to go there, so I did.

When I reached the cove half an hour later, I walked down to the water and pulled off my shoes and socks. Sitting by the edge I dipped my toes in and drew a long breath. I loved being a part of the expedition and getting to work with what I burned for was great, but relaxing and showers were a rarity so I took this chance to strip out of all of my clothes and walk all the way into the water. Swimming around there by myself was bliss and I stayed in the water till my skin was all wrinkly and the sun started to set. After my swim I tied my long blonde hair in a braid, pulled on my underwear and draped my oversize brown shirt over my shoulders to keep warm but not dressing yet out of a wish to avoid soaking all of my clothes before I was completely dry. As I was waiting for my hair and skin to dry, I decided to take a stroll around the small lake. Soon I spotted a small cave, I knew as I reached it that entering was a pretty bad idea, but my curiosity got the best of me and I went in to go explore. I walked a few meters before I spotted it.

"Strange," I mumbled to myself, "there is light at the end of the cave, perhaps it is a tunnel." I continued my walk towards the light, but what I expected to be another entrance to the cave turned out to be an old statue of a dragon, glowing a rich blue. Baffled I walked closer to it. The dragon was unlike any I had ever seen before and I felt exited at the possibility of a new undiscovered species.

The closer I got to the statue, the louder became the humming in my head and I noticed that the water on my skin started glowing along with the statue. It all felt incredibly enchanting, when I reached it my breathing sped up and the humming was deafening. I should have turned away, left the cave, dried off, walked home and showed my discovery to the rest of the crew the next day. Instead, I reached a hand out and touched the snout of the dragon statue.

I was not an inexperienced girl, I had been in pain before, been excited and in love. I had felt the thrill of high speed and the messiness and intensity of sex, I had known loss and psychological suffering. And despite all this had I never felt anything like what came next. My breathing became almost impossible, the humming in my head felt like it was ripping me apart, my entire body was shaking and I screamed. It felt as if I was squashed together to fit through some tunnel that no human should be able to pass through. It felt like my intestines was ripped out and all bones in my body was broken at once. Next thing I knew was when everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

That day was the anniversary of the death of his father. He still blamed himself after one year, if he had just listened to his father instead of insisting that changing the mind of Drago Bludvist. Hiccup opened his closed his eyes and let out a frustrated grunt, he would not gain anything from lying in bed and blaming himself all day, besides, he was chief now, he had a responsibility. He rolled out of bed and Toothless was with him instantly. They always started their day with flying since he rarely had time for it in the middle of the day after becoming chief. Hiccup was dressed in record time and left his hut with his dragon. His mother was often up early too but he hoped to get past her for a change, not in the mood for others sorrow yet. The death of Stoic the Vast had been a hard blow for the village and Hiccup still doubted that he would ever be able to live up to the name of his old man. 

Toothless roared joyously as Hiccup crawled on his back and motioned for his dragon to take flight. Hiccup knew that the dragon missed flying longer trips and he wished he could be less busy and fly Toothless for hours, especially since the dragon only was able to fly with him on its back. Another thing to feel guilty about, it looked out to be a wonderful day! Hiccup let out a breath of frustration and closed his busy mind to focus on the freedom he felt, being on the back of his dragon.

Instead of flying directly home after their flight, Hiccup decided to stop by the cove for a swim. This swim never happened, for as they landed, Hiccup spotted a figure passed out by the edge of the water. Walking closer, he noticed that it was a girl, she was dressed in nothing but a strange looking shirt as far as he could see and she had scratches and blood all over her legs and arms. He knelt down next to her, she was still breathing but not conscious.

"Look like we won't swim today, bud." Hiccup said to the dragon as he picked up the unconscious girl, she was ice-cold. "We should have Gothi take a look at her and clean her scratches… Time to return to reality." With a sigh, he carried her to the dragon and flew back to the village.

He had told me this later when we grew closer. Had chuckled and said that I actually improved his day by giving him something other than his father to think off.

After passing out, I had woken up in a completely dark cave. There was no sign of the statue, and the humming, pain, and what else had accompanied it was gone as well. Puzzled I scrambled to my feet and felt my way out of the cave. It was completely dark outside and incredibly cold as I was only dressed in my underwear and shirt. I buttoned the shirt so it at least gave a bit more warmth. As I emerged from the cave, I went to look for my clothes but they were nowhere in sight. Scared and cold I decided to make my way back to the beach where we stayed. I made my way through the forest but lost my way a couple of times. The forest looked completely different in the dark and being barefooted I fell and hurt myself countless times.

I was already pretty beat up and filled with scratches when I finally found my way out of the forest. As I stepped out between the trees, I almost screamed. Nothing made any sense at all. In front of me stood hut after hut, some of them with lights in their windows and others turned off for the night. Dragons were resting on the roofs and music could be heard from the Meade Hall where drunken men - dressed in leathers, wearing metal helmets, and sporting giant beards - stumbled home from. I longed for the heat emitting from the stone building, but I turned around, I needed to get back, I thought to myself that I must be hallucinating. Perhaps the water in the cove had been poisoned or something, it was after swimming there that I saw all kinds of weird things.

This time I ran through the forest, I ripped the sleeves on my shirt and fell over and over until I was bleeding from countless wounds on my legs, arms, feet, and hands. I did not care about that, I just needed to get home. When I finally reached the cove again I ran to the cave. The statue was still not there so I went back out and jumped in the water fully dressed. Completely drenched I returned to the cave again but still no statue. By that point I was shivering, bleeding, and crying in desperation. I felt so completely hopeless when I left the cave again. I screamed into the night and collapsed on the ground, soon everything went black again.

Hiccup later told me that I was passed out for more than 24 hours. In that time the village was humming with talk about who I could be and where I was from. People tried to come up with explanations for an almost naked girl being found all beaten up. Hiccup told me he had told a little white lie and said that he had found me on a small uninhabited island instead of on Berk. He did not need people to accuse me of being an enemy before I had healed and he had interrogated me.

Eventually I did wake up. When I opened my eyes it was light outside, I felt warm and safe for a change. My false sense of security quickly faded away though, as I looked around and realised that I was inside one of those huts that should not even exist. Either I was being pranked, I was hallucinating, or I had actually been send more than thousand years back in time. With the last one being completely impossible and the first one being too unrealistic, I figured I must be hallucinating. I sat up in bed slowly, my entire body was still hurting but I could not deal with laying there another second. I needed some sort of answers. I looked over my body, it appeared that I was still wearing my underwear, but except for that, I was dressed in a white nightgown. I took some calming breaths to keep myself from hyperventilating, it all seemed so real, perhaps had travelled back in time? No it would not make any sense at all.

The door was opened and a young man stepped in, he was thin but looked strong, had a nice face, soft green eyes and auburn hair. In other words, he was pretty attractive. He met my eyes and gave me a warm smile. Sitting down on a chair next to my bed, he handed me a plate with some cheese and bread on it.

"I was hoping you would be awake by now," he said, "you shouldn't get up yet though, you were pretty beaten up when I found you." I just kept staring at him. He was wearing some sort of armour with all these hooks and handles, yet he obviously did not come from my time. I started to really consider if it was possible, being sent back in time. "Soooo, um, I need you to tell me who you are." He spoke again as I still kept quiet.

"Astrid," I replied in a low murmur, "my name is Astrid Hofferson… Thank you for saving me. I-eh… Where am I?"

"You're on the Isle of Berk. And no need to thank me, I couldn't just leave a hurt woman like that." He smiled again and stood up. "I need to get going, I will get our healer – Gothi – to take a look at you. You should eat and get some rest, I will come back later." With that he stood up and left me by myself.

I ate what he had given me and soon after a small old lady showed up, accompanied by a girl who looked about my age. The old lady walked over to me and pushed the blanket out of her way before she started examining my wounds without asking. I tried pulling my leg away from her but she just grabbed it, she was stronger than she looked.

"I apologise on behalf of Gothi, she's our healer but she doesn't speak. Let her examine your wounds, she won't hurt you." The girl said. I looked her over and gave in to the old lady, letting her poke around while I turned all of my attention on the girl.

"My name's Heather, Hiccup asked me to go check on you together with Gothi. How are you feeling?" She had this atmosphere about her that made me like her instantly, somewhat like the man from earlier, Hiccup I presumed. Heather was a lot different though, she almost seemed like she could be from my time, at least a more modern time than this.

"I don't really know… My head is still hurting and I am so confused. I think my entire universe has been turned upside down and I don't know how I should react to anything." I looked at the ceiling, taking a few controlled breathes before looking back. "My name is Astrid by the way."

"You have a nice name Astrid, are you feeling better physically?"

"Thank you, uh, you too… And yes I am, I am sore but after having had something to eat and such, I feel a lot better. Thank you."

"No need to thank me." Heather smiled at me again and soon she and Gothi left me.

I heard them lock the door after themselves. Figures I was being held here so they could get some answers. Not having anything to do to pass time, I laid back down and went back to sleep. I dreamed of my childhood, of my grandfather telling me tales and me drinking a cup of hot chocolate.


	3. Chapter 3

When I woke up again, it was in the afternoon. A soft knock sounded to my door, like the one that had pulled me out of my sleep. I sat up in bed again and let out a disappointed sigh, apparently I was still in this place. 

"Come in," I called out with a raspy voice.

"Good evening, I brought you dinner." it was the man again, Hiccup as Heather had called him. He went and sat next to my bed, handing me the plate, just like earlier. I took it silently and started eating slowly. "Are you ready to tell me about why you are here? Where you are from? I need to figure out if you're a threat or not."

When I kept eating without replying, he frowned and took the plate from me. Giving me a sterner look.

"That was not nice" I said and grabbed for the plate, but he held it out of my reach from the bed. I was still too weak to fight for it so I gave in with a sigh. "I will talk, but can I have my food back?"

With a triumphant smile, he handed me the plate again and I took a few bites before talking again.

"I find it fit that you tell me your name first though, before I start spilling my life story."

"I am Hiccup Haddock, chief of this tribe." He replied with another frown. My eyes widened and I looked him over again.

"Are you that Hiccup? Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III? The one who reformed the archipelago from dragon fighting to dragon riding?" I asked in wonder. My grandfather had told me stories of this Viking chief. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III who lived a life in harmony with his dragon without ever marrying, thereby ending the Haddock bloodline, he was looked upon as a great and wise chief. If he was chief now, that meant that his father was already dead. I also meant that I had been sent back more than 1100 years. I had to focus on my breathing again, trying hard not to panic.

"That I am… How do you know of me?" Hiccup replied after a while.

"It's a long story," I said slowly, "You probably won't believe it even if I told you."

"Oh I wouldn't say that. I am actually pretty open minded." He said.

"Well I come from America, it's really far from here. I grew up with my grandfather because my parents passed away when I was younger. I do not really know how I ended up here, one moment I was on a boat and the next a dragon flew off with me. I must have blacked out, the next thing I remember is me running confused through the forest and passing out by the water. But I am no threat to you, I only wish to get home but I do not think that it is possible." I hated lying, but telling a story of me traveling through time when I still doubted it myself. I would not do that. I did not want him to think I was crazy or something like that. Hiccup looked at me with doubt in his eyes, but he shook it off and gave me a bright smile.

"See that wasn't so hard now was it?" He chuckled and ran a hand through his hair.

He was like crazy attractive, especially while smiling or laughing.

"I guess not" I smiled back. He stood up and reached for my now empty plate.

"Also, you forget that we have dragons, I will give you a lift home when you're completely healed. Tomorrow I will show you the village, wouldn't want to be locked up in a room until completely healed if I was you." With that, he left the room. This time the door was left unlocked.

I felt really guilty about lying to the guy for some reason, but what could I do? I most certainly did not want to be treated like a mad person on top of a potential enemy. Yet I still felt bad, he was a really nice guy and I had straight up lied to his face. He had also promised to help me get home but that dragon statue was not where it was supposed to be, I really doubted the possibility of ever getting back to my own time. If I were to stay in this time I should really get some friends, what if lying to the chief had ruined my chances of living here? Then I would have to go search for another home, perhaps I would just end up with some outcasts somewhere, cast aside as a liar and madman. I longed for a past and a home that technically would not exist for the next 1100 years. I could not stop the tears that had already started pouring from my eyes, so instead I let them tire me out and yet again I found myself in a deep sleep with dreams from my childhood.

I rose with the sun the morning after. Apparently someone had been in the room after I had fallen asleep because a set of clothes lay on the chair next to my bed. I looked it over in wonder before shrugging and getting up to put it on. It was a blueish grey pair of tights and a red top, besides that was a leather skirt with spikes and skulls on it, shoulder pads also with spikes and skulls, a headband, some arm warmers, and fur boots. The entire set was so different from what I was used to but I actually really liked it. I thought about what an opportunity I was actually given. While I was still sad and longed for my own time, I at least had a few things going for me. I would actually get to meet and fly real life dragons! I should let myself experience and enjoy it while looking for a way home, instead of basking in my desperation.

When Hiccup came and picked me up, I felt less like the odd one out and more like I fit in than I had done the day before. He had complimented my actually, and I had blushed. I reminded myself to figure out who had given me the clothes and thank them later.

"Have you ever ridden a dragon, Astrid?" Hiccup asked after a while.

I had paid little attention to him, being too busy taking the village in now in the daylight instead of at night while I was in panic. Hiccup had given me a tour of the village, showing me the Meade Hall, the beach and harbour, the Forge, and so on. There were people and dragons everywhere, it was wonderful to watch, like stepping into a movie or dream.

"Huh?"

"Have you ever ridden a dragon?" He repeated himself, looking at me with amusement.

"No…. Well not voluntarily." I remembered my lie and added the last comment with a sad smile. Hiccup nodded in understanding.

"Well I can teach you if you want?"

"For real? Christ, I would love to!" He looked confused by the 'Christ', I noted to use northern mythology instead of Christianity. Hiccup shook his confusion off with a laugh and pointed to the giant building behind himself. The arena, I mumbled to myself, recognizing the building I had only seen in a ruin form until that moment.

"Welcome to the Dracon Academy then!"

He led me inside and asked me to stand in the middle of the arena, then he called out and a black dragon showed up between us. It was that dragon! The one the statue resembled! Hiccup kept talking about approaching dragons but I could not concentrate, this dragon might be able to help me get home. I held out my hand, like I did with the statue, and touched the snout of the dragon. For a brief second, I imagined that it would take me home but of course it did no such thing, instead the dragon nuzzled its head against my palm and I smiled disappointed. My mood picked up a bit though, when I realised that I was actually touching a dragon.

"Toothless seems to like you. You did good Astrid, exactly as I explained, I will try to call a not trained dragon in and let you bond with that if you are up for the test?" Hiccup had not realised that I had heard nothing of what he had told me so far about training dragons, but I was too proud to admit that I did not listen so I just went with it and nodded for him to call a wild dragon in.

Honestly I did not know what I was thinking, I had never even seen a dragon before the other night, never touched one till just then and now I expected that I was able to bond with a wild one? I must have gone mad.

With an encouraging smile, Hiccup called for the wild dragon and not before the moment where a dragon - which I could identify as a deadly nadder - stood before me, did I realise what I had actually agreed to. I knew nothing about dragons! This would not end well.

"Remember to relax, Astrid, the dragon won't harm you unless you pose a threat to it, but it can sense your fear and some dragons have a negative reaction to fear." Hiccup called from the side-lines. Hearing his voice reminded me that he would not just let the dragon hurt me, so I calmed myself down the best that I could and held out my hand for the nadder, just like I had done with Toothless and the statue.

The beautiful blue and yellow nadder looked at me with curiosity for a while before it met my hand with its snout. A smile leapt across my face and I stroke the animal slowly. It was all so surreal, I felt more like I was in a dream than reality, but I decided to enjoy the dream at least for this part. I was actually petting a dragon! How crazy was that?

"She likes you," Hiccup said as he walked closer to the nadder and me, "if you would like to, you could name her, train her to be loyal to you?"

"I would love to do that, but do you really think I'm experienced enough for that?" The dragon made a sound of satisfaction and pushed against my hand while Hiccup gave a small laugh.

"I trained Toothless here all by myself without knowing a single thing about dragons, I will guide you, you can easily do it." I smiled at him before looking at the dragon.

"Then I will train you, and I think I will call you…. Stormfly." Stormfly gave a happy roar and again I could not stop smiling.

Everything was horrible, my life had been thrown upside down and I felt more helpless than ever before. I was scared and insecure, uncertain that I would even ever be able to go home. All of that negativity, but Stormfly was one thing that could bring me a smile.

"You beautiful girl" I whispered to her in my brief joy.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey everybody, here's next chapter :)**

 **Thank you for the views, reviews and votes!**

 **I will try my best to post as frequently as possible, but I am currently battling a depression and that sometimes drain all of my energy and creativity :/**

 **Anyways, I won't keep you from reading, so here's next chapter, have fun!**

 **Love Lennie**

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"Training a dragon is all about trust, skill is important as well of course, but if there is no trust then it won't work no matter what." Hiccup lectured me, walking around in the Arena. "Owning a dragon can be dangerous, many people are against it and will try to harm both you and your dragon. You will not only have to learn to fly, but to fight as well if you're not already able to do that."

"I am trained in taekwondo, but where I come from, fighting isn't really needed." I said. I was sitting on the back of Stormfly by now, Hiccup deciding that with the bond he could sense between Stormfly and I, we could easily go for a short flight within long.

"What is taekwondo?" I frowned at myself, I had to remember that these people were unaware of most things that was natural to me.

"It's a form of martial art… A form for physical combat." I explained.

"Okay then, that is good, but you will probably still need to learn how to fight with weapons. We will work that out later. Do you feel up for a flight now?"

I was incredibly nervous, yet I nodded anyways and Hiccup smiled widely. He climbed on the back of Toothless and quickly explained to me how to set off. Within moments, we were soaring upwards. I felt ecstatic, it was the most wonderful feeling, with the wind blowing through me and my heart feeling free. I laughed wholeheartedly, taking it all in. Stormfly roared in joy along with me. Beneath us lay Berk, I remember seeing it from the chopper as the expedition flew over it and landed on the beach, then it had looked amazing, forest taking up most of the island, the ruins of the old village barely visible from the air. Now it looked even more magical, the village was full of colour and life and everything seemed so idyllic and happy. Knowing that in a few hundred years the last people would leave this place and the dragons would go extinct made my heart heavy, unfortunately I could not change history even if I wanted to.

Way too soon, Hiccup motioned for us to fly back down again. I wished to spend more time up here but I knew that I would get the chance again so I followed suit without any complaints. We landed in front of the academy and jumped off of our dragons. I went and petted Stormfly again, still feeling high on the experience.

"You did really great Astrid, you can be proud of yourself."

"Thank you Hiccup, it was amazing!" He laughed with me, looking at me with a warm smile.

"I know. Since I became chief, I have been tied down by responsibilities and whatnot all of the time. I never feel quite as free and amazing as I do soaring around up there on the back of Toothless." Hiccup smiled and scratched his dragon who purred in delight under his touch.

"I can imagine it is a lot of work, being chief and all." I studied the young man before me, he could not be more than a few months older than me and yet he was chief. So much responsibility laid on his shoulders and in reality he was barely an adult. I really felt bad for him, but I knew how great he would become, which eased my mind a bit.

"It is. It was never my wish to be chief but I had no choice…" Another sigh escaped him before he gathered himself and smiled once again. "Anyways, let us get going, there is breakfast in the Meade Hall now and I know that some of the others have been looking forward to getting to meet you."

We walked to the Meade Hall in silence, it had been more than an hour since I had thought of getting home. I had almost forgotten that I belonged somewhere else than in this time and that made me feel pretty guilty. I had to keep in mind that I should figure out how to get home, how all of this had even happened in the first place. Reaching the Meade Hall, Hiccup led me over to a table where several people that also looked about our age was already seated.

"Good morning, gang! I want you to meet Astrid Hofferson, the girl I found the other day." Hiccup presented me to the others.

"I see you're feeling better, nice to see you again Astrid," said the raven haired girl from the day before, Heather I recalled.

"You too." I smiled. Hiccup motioned for me to sit down between him and another blonde girl, I followed and sat down, the girl next to me gave an excited smile.

"The clothes I found fit you! Awesome!" The girl exclaimed. She high-fived the boy next to her with a stupid grin before returning her attention to me. "I am Ruffnut, this is my stupid-ass brother Tuffnut." She pointed to the boy whom she had just high-fived. He waved at me and I gave a small wave back.

"Nice to meet you two, and thank you for the clothes" I said with a smile, I was usually pretty confident and outgoing, but in this group everybody was staring at me and that made me a bit uncomfortable.

"Hey no worries, now I got to you first so you can look rad instead of stupid like most people do!" I thought to myself that I easily could get along with this girl, just like with Heather, it would be nice to have some sort of friends while I would be forced to be here.

"Hi Astrid, I am Fishlegs, it's nice to-" a larger guy that sat next across from me started.

"And Snotloud to your service," the last guy cut Fishlegs off with a smug smile.

After everybody had introduced themselves, people started asking questions about me. I felt terrible by the web of lies I had to weave around myself but I did not know what else to do. Just as I had told Hiccup, I told them that I was from America and that I had been taken by a dragon.

"Weird," Fishlegs commented, "it is unusual for dragons to act that way." I looked away, fearing that my story would be doubted too much, but they seemed to accept it nonetheless.

"Oh yeah I almost forgot, Astrid needs help to learn how to fight, she has bonded with a nadder and know a bit combat but she has never fought with weapons before." Hiccup said after a while.

"We should be able to figure out some training," Heather smiled at me.

"No, I wouldn't mind teaching a pretty face like yours," Snotloud said with a wink. I rolled my eyes at him and looked to Heather again.

"I would really appreciate that." I said.

After breakfast, Heather and Ruffnut pulled me with them back to the Academy, although this time there were no dragons, instead they pulled out a wagon filled with various weapons. Heather found a double-edged axe and handed it to me, she mentioned that axes were her weapon of choice so that was where we would start.

I was pretty sceptical at first but soon I came to learn why an axe was Heathers weapon of choice, it was amazingly fun to target practise and eventually spare with the two girls. I completely forgot the time passing and suddenly it was beginning to get dark.

"We should go get something to eat, we can train again tomorrow." Heather said.

"Yes finally! I am starving!" Ruff's outburst made us laugh before we gathered the things and walked back to the Meade Hall.

Despite my still present intentions to return back to my own time, I really enjoyed myself. I could not remember the last time I had felt so happy, or actually I could, it was back before my grandfather fell ill. Meanwhile I was trying to figure everything out, parts of me still felt like I was hallucinating, perhaps I was in a coma and this was the alternative dream world that I was imagining. This feeling of everything being too surreal helped calm me down so I could think of other things than the leap back in time I apparently had taken.

The evening turned the day into something even better, after eating everybody just hung out, drank mead and told stories. I heard a lot of the gangs' adventures, from before Hiccup had befriended Toothless at the age of 15 to now 6 years later, how they had met Heather and how they had taken her in a few months ago. The story of Heather gave me hope, perhaps they would take me in if I failed my quest for getting home. Hiccup told me about the dragon sanctuary where his mother had lived for 20 years, in his descriptions it seemed like a magical place where I would have loved to visit. When they told me about Stoic the Vast I could feel the pain not only Hiccup felt from losing his father, but the entire village had lost a great man and leader. I found myself wishing that I could have met him before his death.

It was long past midnight before we went to bed, Fishlegs accompanied me to Gothi's hut, where I still stayed, since he lived near it.

"It's more than a year since I have last seen Hiccup smile like he did today, we all like you Astrid but I have to ask you consider how close you get to him if you're planning to leave. He is fragile after the loss of his father, it might not seem that way but he has already distanced himself a lot over the last year, we don't need a chief who distance himself completely." He smiled sadly, "I hope you enjoyed yourself today, tomorrow I will help you with some dragon theory if you would like, and I am certain that Ruff and Heather would love to train with you again. I would get some sleep if I were you."

"I will, thank you Fishlegs… And I will be cautious with him, thank you for warning me." A small wave and he left, leaving me to my own thoughts.

I went inside and straight to bed. I was really worn out yet I had trouble sleeping. What should I do? I had let the day run off with me, what right did I have befriending them and Stormfly if I was just going to leave them anyways. For the first time since getting here, I did not dream of my childhood, instead I had nightmares of my parents' deaths, my grandfather's death, how everyone I had ever loved had left me too early.

The next morning, I woke up with dried tears on my face and drenched in sweat. I knew with myself now that I should be more careful so I could avoid hurting anybody, especially around Hiccup.


End file.
